Eucharistic Miracle of

BRUSSELS
BELGIUM, 1370

In the Cathedral of Brussels

there are many artistic testimonies
to a Eucharistic miracle verified
in 1370. Desecrators stole
Hosts and struck at them with Section of a stained glass window
in the Cathedral of St. Gudala and
knives as a way of showing their The Eucharistic Miracle at
Brussels. Hiron Museum, St. Michael, in which the
Paray-le-Monial Eucharistic miracle is depicted
rebellion. From these particles
came a flow of living blood.
This miracle was celebrated
up until some decades ago.
There are many reliquaries of
different eras that were used
to contain the miraculous Hosts
of the miracle of the Blessed
Old prints that portray the miracle
Sacrament. They have been Cathedral of St. Gudala
and St. Michael, Brussels

kept to this day in the museum

close to the cathedral in an
ancient chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament. There are tapestries
of the 18th century which
represent the miraculous event.

T
Interior of the Cathedral of St. Gudala and St.Michael, Stained glass windows of the cathedral depicting events
Brussels connected with the Eucharistic miracle

he five stained glass windows that grace the them to friends of her husband. These friends
side nave of the cathedral take us through were filled with hatred of things Catholic.
stages of the Eucharistic miracle. They were
installed at various times from 1436 to 1870. The On Good Friday 1370, the friends met and
Kings of Belgium, Leopold I and Leopold II, began to slash the Hosts with knives, and the
presented the first windows on the lower level. Hosts began to bleed! The desecrators were
The others were gifts from various noble families badly frightened and entrusted the Hosts to an
of the country. important Catholic merchant.

The first ten windows represent the story as it came This merchant revealed the
to Brussels in the middle of the 15th century. The whole story to the curate of the Church of
ancient document reads : In 1369 a rich merchant Notre Dame. The curate took possession of the
from Enghien who hated the Catholic religion, Hosts and the desecrators were condemned to
had some consecrated Hosts stolen. He worked death by the Duke of Brabant. The Hosts were
with a young man from Louvain (on windows 1-3). taken in procession to the cathedral of St.
The merchant was assassinated mysteriously a few Gudula. The Eucharistic miracle remains an
days later. His widow, surmising it was a punish- important part of the traditions of Brussels and
ment from Heaven, got rid of the Hosts by giving is something of a national symbol.

2006, Istituto San Clemente I Papa e Martire / Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association